Chapter 180: Three Hundred Heartbeats

Grand Meridian.

The name burned on the sovereign engine’s wall map as the countdown began.

THREE HUNDRED HEARTBEATS TO FUSION.

Every beat shook the Sunken Kiln. Iron teeth opened and closed around the mouth beneath the black water. Source lines of red, white, blue, and black climbed above it, carrying the Hunger Road, winter debt, trade lines, and command lines, all rising together toward the top of the mouth. Water washed across the iron walkways with every heartbeat of the engine. Austin Veyron could feel the heat radiating off the mouth. It made his skin pull tight across his face.

Vordessa stood with both hands on the bridge controls.

"You keep shattering things," she yelled over the sound of the engine. "You never learned that they wanted to be one thing."

Austin Veyron watched the mouth aim for the route line leading to Grand Meridian. He could feel the Freehold lobby and its people, the ones who had learned to keep their food counts visible on their ledgers. The sovereign engine wanted to command them all as one source.

DEVOUR wanted the sovereign engine.

It wanted all of the mouth before Vordessa could complete it. Devour everything beneath you and become the one sovereign. No more traveling the world chasing pieces of source. No more watching people die from cold or starvation because he arrived too late. If he ate it all, he could end it all.

Veyra appeared in front of him.

"What do you want to devour?"

"The sovereign engine."

"What will it create?"

"A throne within myself."

Sable lifted the broken piece of crown. "Then the target needs to be smaller."

The countdown dropped.

TWO HUNDRED EIGHTY-NINE HEARTBEATS.

Nyra held the debt chime in one blue-black boundary and the pale splinter in another. They were pulling toward each other so hard that she could barely keep them apart.

"I can separate their resonance," she said. "But only if no one tries to force them into a new source."

"Do you want to?" Austin Veyron asked.

"Yes."

Ceryn and Tessa moved to the outer edge of the engine, where the records were stored. Thousands of route lines circled the engine’s mouth. Some of them were clean and listed only the facts about food. Others carried red lines that commanded who owned that information. The added lines were squeezed in between the real facts, so that from a distance they almost looked like one.

"We’ll save the facts," Ceryn said. "And strip away the commands."

"Grand Meridian needs to know the route lines so they can prepare for the pressure," Tessa said.

She lifted the relay token, and Marcus appeared in a flash of white light.

"We’re detecting pressure from the engine," Marcus said. "The Freehold’s routes are holding, but we’re seeing movement on our main ledger line. What do you need from us?"

"We need you to leave the routes open," Austin Veyron said. "Keep as many witnesses online as you can."

"Already done," Marcus replied. "Elena has opened the route lines to the public. Nahlia is feeding you information on the pressure, too. You’re not doing this alone."

Austin Veyron felt DEVOUR recede as Marcus spoke. It was as if the roar of the sovereign engine faded away, and all he could hear was Marcus talking to him from miles away.

The broker screamed from the fuel line attached to him.

Red lines ran from the man’s chest and neck into the engine. His mask had been ripped away from one side of his face. Vordessa was using him as a living source, translating between debt and trade.

"You asked for a trade market," Vordessa told him. "Now you are becoming one."

The broker looked at Austin Veyron. "I didn’t know I would be part of it."

"You knew it was going to take someone," Tessa said.

The broker flinched. In that moment, he didn’t look like the villain he had seemed to be. He looked like a scared man who had just realized he was about to fall off a cliff.

Another heartbeat echoed across the bridge.

TWO HUNDRED FIFTY HEARTBEATS.

Soot divers climbed out of the water, but they weren’t the same divers as before. Their armor was laced with every source line: the teeth of the Hunger Road, frost from the winter line, hooks from the ledgers, and fire from the engine.

ONE SOURCE LINE. ONE MASTER.

Veyra faced off against one of the divers and deflected its hook with her weapon. Rin hit the diver with an arrow, striking the red route line attached to it. Orena blocked the mouth of the stairs as more divers climbed up to reach Tessa and Ceryn.

Austin Veyron identified the command holding them together.

"Target," he said. "The one-source-line-one-master command in the divers. Not the divers themselves. Not the route lines or their facts. Not the force of the engine."

"Witnessed," Veyra yelled while defending herself from another diver.

"Witnessed," Sable said.

Austin Veyron reached out and touched the chest of one of the divers.

DEVOUR opened. The command tasted like every route closing down to a single lock.

ONE SOURCE LINE. ONE MASTER.

He consumed master.

The diver fell to its knees. All of its source lines separated from each other. The winter line dropped from its armor, and so did the fire line. The ledger hooks stopped glowing red, and the Hunger Road teeth were nothing but metal hooks now.

All of the other divers scattered.

Some went back down into the water, and some stood on the bridge, looking around in confusion. One of them stared at his hands as if he didn’t recognize them.

The countdown continued.

TWO HUNDRED HEARTBEATS.

Nyra cried out in pain.

The debt chime began to pull toward the pale splinter. Her blue-black boundaries started to weaken as she struggled to keep them apart.

Ysara stepped forward to help her.

"I can help with the old bell pattern," she said. "I won’t be commanding it."

"Will you be able to do this without taking it?" Nyra asked.

Ysara closed her eyes. "I choose to."

The two women formed separate notes around the chime and the splinter. The source lines stopped trying to fuse and remained as pieces, not crowns. Ysara’s face turned pale as she concentrated on her note, but she never reached for the debt chime.

Ceryn ripped a page of red route lines from one of the water-route ledgers on the engine’s gears.

"Grand Meridian pressure line," they yelled. "The command line is attached to this."

Tessa read the route line out loud.

ALL ROUTE LINES ARE FEEDING THE LAST MOUTH.

The sovereign engine grew louder in response.

The dark mark on Austin Veyron’s wrist opened up. He could feel the last mouth trying to pull every route line toward itself to feed it. DEVOUR began tempting him again with the idea of devouring the route line and becoming the last mouth himself.

Veyra noticed him wavering.

"Smaller."

Austin Veyron’s legs nearly gave out beneath him. The force of the engine and his own hunger were overwhelming him. Veyra reached out and placed her hand on his back to keep him standing.

He focused on what DEVOUR was trying to make him consume.

Not the route lines.

Not the mouth of the engine.

The word last.

"Target," he said. "The last-mouth command line. Not the route lines. Not the power of the engine. Not any member of the Freehold."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable responded.

Austin Veyron rammed the white root chain into one of the engine’s gears.

DEVOUR opened. The command line tasted like no one would ever get to eat again once he had taken it from them.

The engine used all his fears against him. If he devoured this command line, he could have victory forever. No one would ever be able to take anything from him or from anyone he loved again.

ALL ROUTE LINES ARE FEEDING THE LAST MOUTH.

He consumed last.

The engine shuddered.

The route lines on the map broke apart from each other. The white lines that made up Grand Meridian grew brighter as Marcus and Elena held them open from afar. Lines of food, witnesses, and the volunteers keeping the routes open were being added to the map.

Vordessa let out a scream.

"You are squandering power!"

"No," Austin Veyron said. "I’m squandering your power."

The fuel line attached to the broker began to break.

Ceryn and Tessa ran over to him. Red lines of source were burning into his skin.

"Do you want to get out of that?" Ceryn asked.

"What happens if I say no?" the broker asked.

"Then we leave you there," Tessa replied. "No one will make that decision for you."

The broker looked at the engine for a moment. Vordessa had promised him power over the market of hunger, but instead he had become a payment to keep the engine running. His hands trembled against the iron, and his breath came in short bursts.

"I want out," the broker said.

Ceryn cut the first line attached to him, and the man gasped as the red light drained out of it. Tessa held him up so he wouldn’t fall into the water.

The engine began to shake.

ONE HUNDRED HEARTBEATS.

Vordessa left the controls and leapt down from the bridge. She extended the forge claws from her hands and lunged at Nyra, trying to take the pale splinter from her.

Veyra blocked her, and the two of them fought. The red and white light from their weapons lit up the area. The force of the blow sent water rushing across the bridge. Veyra slid back slightly but regained her footing. Sable thrust her broken crown between them to keep Vordessa from reaching the splinter.

"Your source is not a person," Sable said.

"If you are hungry enough, everything is a source," Vordessa retorted.

Austin Veyron could feel the sovereign engine calling to him once again.

This time, it didn’t want him to devour the mouth. It wanted him to devour Vordessa and use the engine to keep everyone he cared about safe.

His hunger wanted to follow the command.

He looked at Veyra, fighting to keep Vordessa away from the source. At Nyra, choosing not to take from others. At the workers in Glasswake, copying food counts. At the route lines held open in Grand Meridian. And at the broker, who had chosen to leave his deal with Vordessa.

They didn’t need a better devourer.

They needed the source to stop commanding them.

Austin Veyron felt DEVOUR calm down. It was still there, but not as loud as it had been.

He looked for what the engine was trying to make him devour.

ONE WILL ENSURES ALL HUNGER IS SAFE.

"Target," he said. "The one-will command line. Not the engine. Not Vordessa. Not the source lines."

"Witnessed," Veyra said, out of breath.

"Witnessed," Sable said.

Austin Veyron reached his hand into the mouth of the engine.

DEVOUR opened. The command line tasted like believing that locking a door would keep you safe from every danger.

The engine showed him every time he had wished someone could command danger away from him. It showed him Grand Meridian under attack, Frostmarket freezing over, and Glasswake with no food. It asked him how keeping others safe could ever make him a monster.

Austin Veyron didn’t answer the question the engine was asking him.

He consumed one.

The sovereign engine shattered.

The countdown stopped at twelve heartbeats.

For a brief second, there was no sound coming from the mouth.

Then an incomplete sovereign broke free from the engine.

It had no body, only source lines. It raced around the engine’s wall map, carrying pieces of every source line Vordessa had used to create it.

The white lines of Grand Meridian lit up.

The unfinished sovereign struck the wall map.

For a second, the entire map turned white. Austin Veyron had to shield his eyes from the brightness that shot across the room. He could hear Nyra gasp and Tessa calling into the token, but there was no response.

Every light in the forge cathedral went out.

The Sunken Kiln began to crumble.